Belle Epoque Research Articles

Paris 1900 de Nicole Vedrès : Une image du bonheur de la Belle Époque ?

En 1947, Nicole Vedrès (1911-1965) présente au tout nouveau festival de Cannes, qui fête alors sa deuxième édition, un film documentaire intitulé Paris 1900. Généralement absente des histoires littéraires et des manuels scolaires, elle se range dans la trop longue catégorie des oubliés du XXe siècle. Paris 1900 est réalisé intégralement à partir d’images d’archives issues de films d’actualités ou de fictions. À partir des immenses fonds conservés par la Cinémathèque française et les studios Gaumont et Pathé, Nicole Vedrès démêle des kilomètres de pellicule pour décrire la Belle Époque. Le documentaire s’intéresse ainsi à l’exposition universelle de 1900, à une Tour Eiffel qui ne fait pas encore l’unanimité, aux habitudes parisiennes et à quelques figures littéraires. Le siècle à venir est placé sous le signe du progrès, de l’élégance et de la légèreté et Paris semble en devoir être l’épicentre. Le texte rédigé par Nicole Vedrès accompagne les images en soulignant leur force évocatrice et laisse au spectateur le soin de reconstruire une expérience sensible de laquelle la nostalgie ne saurait être absente. L’image du bonheur liée à la Belle Époque est qualifiée, par Berstein et Milza, d’« image d’Epinal » née après une Première Guerre mondiale qui a bouleversé l’ordre des choses. En 1947, c’est depuis une autre après-guerre que Nicole Vedrès réalise son film et il s’agit encore d’évoquer un âge d’or perdu et n’ayant peut-être jamais existé. Le succès que connut Paris 1900, au moment où l’on est en droit de douter de l’existence même du bonheur, est peut-être révélateur de ce besoin de représentation, entre illusions perdues et nécessité de croire.

Toulouse-Lautrec, su enfermedad y su arte

His physical defects: thickening of the bone, short stature and bone fragility (pycnodysostosis) inheritance of family endogamy marginalized Toulouse-Lautrec, an educated bourgeois, cultured and intellectual who preferred to travel through the secondary paths of life in the neighborhood of Montmartre, famous for its cabarets, parties and prostitutes, a place where the artist felt comfortable even though they were full of misery and imperfections Despite being a misfit social, he became, through his work, a social chronicler of the Parisian belle epoque. Key words: pycnodysostosis, endogamy, Toulouse-Lautrec, belle epoque, painting, posters

Digitization of the Built Cultural Heritage: An Integrated Methodology for Preservation and Accessibilization of an Art Nouveau Museum

The emergence of new technologies has dynamized the way in which cultural heritage is documented, preserved, and passed on to new generations; something that determines a paradigm shift in terms of research in this field. Most operations now also have access to the virtual component. In this context, the current study aimed to make accessible through virtual and augmented reality one of the most interesting objectives belonging to the Jewish cultural heritage built in Art Nouveau style in the municipality of Oradea (Romania), which currently functions as a La Belle Epoque Museum. In the study, the techniques of terrestrial, aerial photogrammetry, and terrestrial laser scanning were used to remodel, in a three-dimensional format, as faithful as possible and usable in different applications, the special architecture of the exterior of the monument. This information was doubled by making the interior of the monument accessible through a complete and complex series of panoramic images interconnected within a virtual tour that will be made available to tourists interested in discovering the Darvas-La Roche House. The virtual tour, which includes both graphic, textual, and audio information, represents an innovative approach for the buildings built in Art Nouveau style in the municipality of Oradea, representing a virtual bridge for better promotion of the tourist destination and for the awareness of the local people regarding the importance of preserving and appreciating the local cultural heritage. This is all the more important as this is the first initiative to make the Art Nouveau buildings in Oradea Municipality accessible to the general public in an innovative way.

Nostalgia in Social Media and the Construction of the “Southern” Identity of the Adenis

Changes in political sentiment among the inhabitants of the former South Yemen, an increase in calls for independence, and rethinking of the Southern identity are accompanied by a rise in nostalgia for the past among the inhabitants of the former South Yemen. Based on the materials collected by the methods of digital ethnography, the article analyzes the role of nostalgic processes in the construction of local identities among Adeni social media users. Nostalgic moods are mainly focused on the time of the British presence (1839–1967) and the existence of the People’s Democratic Republic of Yemen (1967–1990). Through a nostalgic prism, these historical periods are often perceived by the Adenis in the same way and merge into one image of the lost «Belle Epoque», while the socio- political contradictions and economic diffi culties that existed back then are being forgotten. The image of the unattainable past becomes a space for the construction of the Southern identity in the present with the Adenis comparing their current reality with bygone times, uniqualizing their historical experience and opposing themselves to the inhabitants of North Yemen.

La Seine à la Belle Époque : La construction d’un mythe moderne

A recurring motif in the urban literature that was formed around Haussmannian Paris, the Seine with its waters, its banks, the railway activities that cross it, builds its own myth around an artistic and poetic destiny. Devalued by the writers and poets of the 19th century, it experienced its golden age at the turn of the century thanks to the enthusiasm shown by the Impressionists for aquatic and river landscapes. We have to wait for the Belle Epoque and its euphoria, the fresh look of a foreign diaspora, as well as a poetic revolution that decentralizes the subject and focuses on the spaces where it evolves, to rehabilitate the Seine and make it a modern myth.

Mariani wine: What's really in it? Analysis of the most popular tonic drink of the 19th century after 100 years of storage

During the Belle Epoque, the use of cocaine, well known to the South American populations, spread among the European elite in the form of a tonic drink created from coca leaves macerated in Bordeaux wine, the Mariani wine. Nowadays, bottles in circulation are extremely rare but the investigations of a Parisian historian led him to the discovery of a bottle of wine that belonged to Angelo Mariani's estate at the end of the 19th century. Our laboratory was asked to analyse the contents of the bottle in order to search for the main active compounds and to estimate the state of preservation. The analysis of the centenarian product collected was aimed at identifying the alcohols and solvents by HS-GC/FID and HS-GC/MS after dilution in water, and the main alkaloids contained in all the samples by LC-HRMS screening and LC-MS/MS quantification. The Mariani wine presented an alcohol content of 15.7°. The screening and the subsequent dosage revealed the following substances: cocaine (86 ng/mL), benzoylecgonine (383 ng/mL), cocaethylene (17 ng/mL), ecgonine methyl ester (130 ng/mL), caffeine, cuscohygrine, cinnamoylcocaine and synephrine. The alkaloids found in the Mariani wine confirm the real presence of coca leaves in this drink. Their low concentrations may indicate drug instability. The presence of cocaethylene demonstrates that it can be formed without passing through the liver, which was supposed to be the site of production when cocaine and ethanol are present in the body at the same time. These appear to be the first report in the literature presenting the analysis of Mariani wine with the dosage of cocaine derivatives.

The Price of Isolation: Fascism, Vichy and the Holocaust in French History

The historiographical debate about France during the Second World War has long been dominated by two foreign historians. On the one hand, the Israeli intellectual Zeev Sternhell notoriously placed the origin of fascism in France's Belle Epoque and saw Vichy France as the paradigmatic example of a fascist regime in his book,Neither Right nor Left, four decades ago. Year after year, Sternhell, who had studied in Paris, made criticisms of the Parisian intellectual milieu and denounced its egocentrism and provincialism. On the other hand, American historian Robert Paxton reigned over the history of French collaboration with Nazi Germany. Although it raised certain controversies when it was translated into French in 1973, hisVichy Francehas been since accepted as the key reference on the subject, as well as an indispensable pedagogical tool against apologetic views of Marshall Pétain's regime, which enjoy periodic revivals in the country. Despite their age – Sternhell died in 2020 and Paxton is ninety years old – these two historians have remained the unavoidable cornerstones in the discussion on French attitudes during the Second World War – the first as a competitor, the second as a paternal figure.

Grasping and understanding the actors of a regional tourism system: the inputs of the Biolemano biographical database (Lake Geneva region, 1852-1914)

ABSTRACT This article highlights the contributions of a biographical database called ‘Biolemano’, which contains information on 1761 tourism players in the Franco-Swiss region of Lake Geneva between 1852 and 1914. The result of more than ten years of research conducted at the University of Lausanne (Switzerland), this digital tool offers innovative research perspectives in the history of tourism by making it possible to grasp the complexity of a regional tourism system in its entirety. The analysis focuses on the collective and individual actors of the three main components of the tourism offer, namely accommodation, transport and entertainment. It reveals the importance of protagonists who have remained in the shadows until now, such as bankers, traders, lawyers and engineers. Another objective is to initiate a more global reflection on the functioning of a regional tourism system by questioning the endogenous or exogenous dominance of the development model. In the end, the study allows us to understand some reasons for the success of regional tourism, which flourished in an impressive way during the Belle Epoque.

벨 에포크 시대의 장식적 특성을 응용한 네일 디자인 연구 - 르네 랄리크의 작품을 중심으로 -

In the modern times, people’s desire for beauty has increased with improvements in cultural standards after rapid economic growth. As a result, affection-centered visual needs have become more diverse. Increase in such sensitivity level has brought a great attention to art and design even in daily life. Nail design has also expanded its realm as a genre of formative art by releasing a wide variety of artistic styles. With a goal of satisfying the diversity and personalization of these visual needs, therefore, this study has attempted to expand design ideation by suggesting decorative art movement-based nail styles. For this, decorative characteristics were analyzed and used for nail styling by reviewing the artworks of Rene Lalique, the most celebrated art deco designer in art nouveau. Art nouveau is the most popularly recognized art movement during the Belle Epoque, which has almost all art elements that modern nail design needs. This study proposes diversity in ideation for nail design by suggesting nail styles with 5 artworks as motives.

Shevchenko's Name Update in Crimean Press of "Belle Epoque"

Shevchenko's Name Update in Crimean Press of "Belle Epoque"

시대극 ‘Cheri’에 표현된 벨 에포크 시대 조형예술의 특징

The purpose of this study was to analyze characteristics of formative art of costumes, architecture, crafts through the period drama in the Belle Epoque. As a research method, this study investigated theoretical background of in the Belle Epoque fist, and analyzed after capturing images in ‘Cheri’ focusing on the women

:Sound Writing: Experimental Modernism and the Poetics of Articulation

:<i>Sound Writing: Experimental Modernism and the Poetics of Articulation</i>

Belle Epoque or Friday Night in West Virginia, and: Depository by Natalie Homer

Reviewed by: Belle Epoque or Friday Night in West Virginia, and: Depository by Natalie Homer Natalie Homer (bio) Branches hold aloft their petalslike saucers without teacups. Rain fills them. Inside the church—old stone, red doors—dark, burnt coffee from the AA groupwends its scent through the halls. The copy machine hums,heats the bulletins as they print.Outside, a man carefully restocks the little free pantry with its peeling blue paint,its miniature glass doors.On the way home, we drive over one of the rusty steel bridges.Sometimes the river is all mist—a witch’s brew snaking through the Appalachian hills.Why are we still speaking about normal, everyday thingswith a sight like that out the window? At home, I wrap the white quilt around mewhose stiches are patterned in little doves, a nice touch.My story, like so many others’, is that I didn’t say nothough I didn’t say yesand anyway, wasn’t I lucky to be wanted at all? Now receive this blessing—I learned latethat I was not supposed to take the wafer but to cup my palms, to ask,to leave myself open and waiting. [End Page 93] Depository The most ambitious daffodils end up buried in snow.Take that to heart. The mudroom of the red brick farmhousegreets me with its unidentifiable, sweet fragrance. Inside, I run my hand along the banister’s curves,appreciate the creaks my steps make on the wood floors. In a small upstairs room, an old map of West Virginiahas a window view out on white-powdered fields, on little red berries jeweled over the bare-branched tree,rations to make it through. I’m thinking of the airy, soft fur of a gray fox,of how being desired only takes you so far— but damn if it doesn’t sometimes feellike all there is. [End Page 94] Natalie Homer Natalie Homer is the author of Under the Broom Tree (Autumn House Press, 2021). Her recent poetry has been published in River Styx, Puerto del Sol, American Literary Review, Four Way Review, Ruminate, Sou’wester, and others. She received an MFA from West Virginia University and lives in southwestern Pennsylvania. Copyright © 2022 University of Wisconsin Board of Regents

Festejos y símbolos: El primer centenario de la independencia de Centroamérica (1921)

Finally we have an analysis of the significance of the 1921 celebrations of the first centenary of Central America's independence. In this book Patricia Fumero follows in the tradition of William Beezley, Silvia Alejandra Palermo, Mónica Lacarrieu, and Annick Lempérière, among others, who have analyzed the 1910 centenary celebrations of the beginning of the independence process in Mexico and Argentina. But Fumero studies national independence centenary celebrations throughout a whole region instead of a single country. These commemorations present an extra layer of complexity because 1921 marked also the last real effort to re-create a united Central American republic. The reason is what Patricia Fumero calls “dual identity,” which reflects the unique situation of the Central American countries, a group of entities that have lived separately since 1838 celebrating their common past almost a century later while attempting to, once again, forge a unified federal republic (p. xxvii).Her book starts with a general description of the 100-year process of unification and separation, including a detailed explanation of the renewed support in 1921 for creating a unified Central America. Her book then follows with individual chapters dedicated to how each of the Central American countries celebrated the independence centenary. While studying the centenary celebrations of each Central American state could constitute a book in itself, Fumero's most important contribution comes in the final chapters, which concentrate on how labor organizations, women's movements, student organizations, and other social movements understood the centenary and used it to promote their own agendas. These organizations pushed for democratic and social reforms that challenged the political control of the oligarchic governments, including the expansion of voting rights, labor laws, and women's rights. The reforms contained in the short-lived Political Constitution of the Federal Republic of Central America of 1921 were just two decades later included in the national constitutions of the different Central American countries, marking a convincing victory for the reformist factions.An important element that Fumero rescues for her discussion of the Central American context of 1921 is the rise of groups supporting regional unification as a response to the expansion of US interventionism. In traditional Central American political culture, one of the most important aspects of the conservative-liberal divide has been the support of liberals for a federal republic. Curiously enough, the development of the individual nation-states in Central America during the late nineteenth century, led mostly by liberal governments, created the conditions for further separation. This separatism benefited US influence in the region, including interference in the 1909 elections in Honduras and the military invasion and occupation of Nicaragua in 1912. Interventionism then promoted the rise of a nonliberal unionism that challenged liberal oligarchies by promoting social and democratic reforms and creating a common front between reformist politicians, intellectual elites, workers, students, and women's movements. Therefore, the centenary was seen as a time for reaffirming Central American identity but also for renovation and change.If there is any room for improvement in this book, it is in the organization and presentation of topics. For example, at the beginning of chapter 5, Fumero argues that Honduras is an exception in the context of the centenary celebrations because the country dealt with a multilayered identity at the national, regional, and federal levels. Nevertheless, a dual identity is present in all the other countries studied by Fumero, and she does not clarify in the chapter why she thinks that Honduras was different. At the same time, Fumero describes elsewhere the strong antiunionism of Costa Rica and the church's absence from Guatemala's independence festivities, both clearly marking relevant differences with the other Central American countries.While Fumero's book studies the independence centenary celebrations in Central America, its main goal is to establish these commemorations as a watershed in Central American political culture, especially due to how they prompted a reevaluation of each country's political systems and thus led to the integration of the region's labor movements, women's movements, and student organizations. A book that initially seems to be embedded exclusively in cultural history and national identity (as studied by Benedict Anderson, Ernest Gellner, and Eric Hobsbawm, among others) ends up also including social and political analysis based on a broad use of secondary sources and a deep digging into primary sources, including newspapers, congressional and municipal documents, government statistics, and reports from various labor organizations, church organizations, and education and foreign relations ministries from every Central American country. This book is essential for any scholar of Central America, but it can also serve historians with an interest in the transformational value of social movements during the early twentieth century, and their challenge to the belle epoque style of government and politics.

벨 에포크 시대의 문화와 드뷔시의 인상주의 음악

The period from about 1871 to the outbreak of the First World War in France in 1914 was a golden age called ‘Belle Époque’, which means beautiful era in French. Economically, through the Industrial Revolution, culture and art flourished centered on Paris, and democracy was developed through the establishment of democratic procedures through the civil revolution. The musical characteristics that emerged in the Belle Epoque era stemmed from cultural backgrounds. These extra-cultural influences and the spread of cultural capabilities led to the birth of new cultural trends such as impressionism, and the activities of impressionist musicians and artists contributed to making the Belle Epoque era more splendid. This study sheds light on the new trends and characteristics of the music field where the Belle Epoque can be most conscious of. And this study examines the music of Debussy, who represented Belle Epoque with impressionism, and analyzes the influence of contemporary cultural background on his music. This study is meaningful in suggesting a new hope for a beautiful period and cultural development by examining the splendid period brought about by the times and social changes in the development of international culture and emphasizing the influence that the era of peace and stability had on cultural formation. Debussy, who is indispensable in the French musical art of the Belle Epoque era, is regarded as a representative composer of impressionism, which influenced Satie and Lex Six by expressing a dreamlike feeling with impressionist characteristics, and using scales and instruments that express exotic emotions. Debussy created beautiful and musically expressive melodies without breaking with the musical conventions of his past. Furthermore, in order to express the beauty of all things in the Belle Epoque period, the feeling of light and water was expressed through sound, occupying a unique position in the generation in which the paradigm of modern music and art was changing.

Amongst Women: Literary Representations of Female Homosociality in Belle Epoque France, 1880–1914. By Giada Alessandroni

<i>Amongst Women: Literary Representations of Female Homosociality in Belle Epoque France, 1880–1914</i>. By Giada Alessandroni

How the Malleability of Material Artefacts Contributes to Institutional Maintenance: The Guimard Metropolitan railway entrances, 1914–2000

Our paper investigates how an institution can be maintained over a long period of time through adaptations to the material artefact which instantiates it. To illustrate our argument, we conduct a historical case study of the Guimard Metropolitan railway entrances, a material artefact which instantiates the Belle Epoque institution from 1914 to 2000. Based on our findings, we develop a process model of institutional maintenance based on the malleability of a material artefact. Supported by three types of interrelated institutional work – damage, preservation and transferability work – we illustrate how adaptations to the material form, meaning and location of an artefact allow an institution to address the evolving environment and its associated challenges and thus to be maintained over time. Our study expands our understanding of long-term institutional maintenance by capturing the importance of the malleability of an artefact and in offering a more positive view on damage work. It also has some implications for studies on materiality in highlighting the multidimensionality of artefacts and the role of transferability and relocation.

A Psychological Reading of Francoise Sagan’s Bonjour Tristesse

Several attempts have been made to discuss the meaning of Francoise Sagan’s Bonjour Tristesse (1954). Those studies focus in the main on the ethical indifference and moral irresponsibility characterizing the life of an upper-class French family of the nineteen-fifties. The sense of disillusionment that can be felt present in some of the characters is a result of the general frustration experienced in the postwar era. Aside from these interpretations, this paper on Sagan’s novella attempts a psychoanalytic assessment of it. Since psychoanalysis has to do with the human psyche and the related mental processes, this study is basically concerned with the inner life of the main character, Cecile, in the light of her relationships with both her father, Raymond, and her would-be step-mother, Anne. Moreover, it tries to explore how effective are (ab)normal relationships on the formation of Cecile’s personality from a psychological and psychoanalytic points of view. Therefore, the discussion is focused on exploring whether such a reading can give more insights into the main characters of the novel, and thus can work out or yield new interpretations which, as they are simply beyond the surface level, would be otherwise hidden or unnoticeable. In its sections, the paper gives firstly a brief account of psychoanalysis in its relation to literature and literary criticism. Then, the discussion shifts to shed light on Sagan’s novel in terms of analyzing the heroine from a psychoanalytic perspective. Reference: - Eagleton, T. (2008) Literary Theory: An Introduction. Blackwell Publishing. - Habib, M. A. R. (2011) Literary Criticism from Plato to the Present: An Introduction. Wiley-Blackwell. -Holmes. D. “Middlebrow Matters: Women’s Reading and the Literary Canon” in France Since the Belle Epoque. Liverpool University Press. http://www.jstor.com/stable/j.ctvt1sk8w.9. Access date: Sat, Jun. 26, 2021. -Jonson, M. (2006) L’influence de L’existentialisme sartrien sur l’œuvre de Françoise Sagan. -Meyer-Stabley, B. (2014) Françoise Sagan: Le Tourbillon d’un Vie. Editions Flammarion. -Parker, Robert D. (2019) How to Interpret Literature: Critical Theory for Literary and Cultural Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press, New York. -Sagan, F. (1954) Bonjour Tristesse. René Julliard, Paris. -Guerin, Wilfred L. et al, (2005) A Handbook of Critical Approaches to Literature. Fifth edition, Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York. -Winston, A. (1997) “Gender and Sexual Identity in the Modern French Novel” in Unwin, Timothy. The Cambridge Companion to the French Novel from 1800 to the Present, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 223-241.

La niñez desviada: La tutela estatal de niños pobres, huérfanos y delincuentes; Buenos Aires, 1890–1919

La niñez desviada: La tutela estatal de niños pobres, huérfanos y delincuentes; Buenos Aires, 1890–1919

Bizet’s Carmen Uncovered by Richard Langham Smith, and: Carmen and the Staging of Spain: Recasting Bizet’s Opera in the Belle Epoque by Michael Christoforidis and Elizabeth Kertesz, and: Carmen Abroad: Bizet’s Opera on the Global Stage ed. by Richard Langham Smith and Clair Rowden

Reviewed by: Bizet’s Carmen Uncovered by Richard Langham Smith, and: Carmen and the Staging of Spain: Recasting Bizet’s Opera in the Belle Epoque by Michael Christoforidis and Elizabeth Kertesz, and: Carmen Abroad: Bizet’s Opera on the Global Stage ed. by Richard Langham Smith and Clair Rowden Ralph P. Locke Bizet’s Carmen Uncovered. By Richard Langham Smith. Woodbridge, Surrey: Boydell, 2021. [xxvi, 340 p. ISBN 9781783275250 (hardcover), $39.95; ISBN 9781787449213 (e-book), price varies.] Illustrations, bibliography, index. Carmen and the Staging of Spain: Recasting Bizet’s Opera in the Belle Epoque. By Michael Christoforidis and Elizabeth Kertesz. (Currents in Latin American & Iberian Music.) London: Oxford University Press, 2018. [xxiii, 344 p. ISBN 9780195384567, $47.95 (hardcover); also available as e-book, ISBN and price vary.] Illustrations, bibliography, index. Carmen Abroad: Bizet’s Opera on the Global Stage. Edited by Richard Langham Smith and Clair Rowden. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. [xxii, 363 p. ISBN 9781108481618 (hardback), $99.99; also available as e-book, ISBN and price vary.] Illustrations, bibliographies, index. Great, widely performed operas are sacred monsters. Each has many varied, attention-getting, even startling or off-putting aspects, yet comes to us glowing with an acquired specialness. The result is that such works spark cartloads of words. Many operas have entire books written about them, for example, the “guidebooks” to individual major operas by such composers as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Giuseppe Verdi, Richard Wagner, Giacomo Puccini, Claude Debussy, Alban Berg, and Benjamin Britten. But some operas have had such a rich and complex history—and, like certain legendary monsters, have taken so many different shapes—that they invite more extended and detailed treatment. One of these, in fact the most obvious of these, is Georges Bizet’s Carmen, which has reached the opera houses of the world, and audio and video recordings, in two primary versions: the original, with lengthy spoken dialogues (characteristic of the opéra comique genre) and the version with recitatives composed by Ernest Guiraud after Bizet’s premature death. (The two very different versions of the work have made the task of preparing an authoritative critical edition exceedingly difficult.) Over the course of nearly a century and a half, the work has been altered, often drastically shortened, and endlessly reinterpreted. And it has permeated the cultural life of Europe, the Americas, and beyond: in ice-skating competitions, magazine ads, a filmed “hip-hopera” (starring pop diva Beyoncé and actor Mekhi Phifer), and much more. (Parlor game: name a half-dozen other operas that have proven to be anywhere near so culturally [End Page 383] fascinating, productive, quotable, excerptable, or misunderstood. I propose The Beggar’s Opera, Christoph Willibald Gluck’s Orfeo ed Euridice / Orphée et Eurydice, Don Giovanni, Charles Gounod’s Faust, the Ring Cycle, Boris Godunov, and Porgy and Bess.) The recent arrival of not one but three books about Carmen helps us sort out the wide-ranging impact of Carmen around the world—and also, just as importantly, the impact of the world on Carmen. Each book is researched and written at an admirably high level, and each has its own distinctive character— and specific stories that it tells, and tells well. Taken together, the three books demonstrate that Carmen is an even more obsession-inducing opera—and one with an even more complex and layered history—than many of its devoted admirers (of which I am one) have realized. Let me first note some basic similarities and differences among the three books. Then I’ll focus on the particular qualities of each and conclude with some recommendations for purchase (books and also scores). All three books are scholarly in nature yet accessible to laypersons, by which term I include not just opera- goers but also college and graduate students interested in the context of standard-repertory works that are all too often presented as existing in glorious isolation: as objects to be admired or adored. All three books will be read with pleasure by individuals interested in European cultural history, especially the stereotypes of Spain—and its inhabitants—that were widespread in France and (thanks in large part to Carmen) in lands far beyond. These books helpfully...